The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems (IHSs), and more particularly to an IHS component cooling system to minimize power consumption
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an IHS. An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Conventionally, reductions in power consumption in an IHS are realized by minimizing fan speeds and operating IHS components at or near their temperature limits. Such conventional approaches are effective as long as the power consumption of the IHS components is a weak function of the temperature of the IHS components, in which case the power saved by reductions in the fan speeds outweighs any resulting variations in the power consumption of the IHS component.
However, the power consumption of some IHS components may increase as a function of the temperature of those IHS components. For example, processors may leak power during operation. One of skill in the art will recognize that as the number of processors components such as, for example, processor gates, have increased in number while also becoming smaller and smaller, the power leaked by those processor components has increased. Furthermore, such power leakage may increase as a function of the temperature of the processor. While the temperature of such processors can be controlled by increasing the speed of associated fan(s), fan power consumption increases at a cubic rate of fan speed while processor cooling as a function of fan speed is non linear, and thus the power consumption required to reduce the temperature of the processor can be highly non-linear.
Processors are typically overcooled to a constant offset temperature that is an offset of their control temperature. It has been found that while, at low ambient temperatures, overcooling the processor to the constant offset temperature may minimize the total power consumption of the system, doing so at high ambient temperatures in many instances does not, as the power consumed by the fans to cool the processor may become greater than the power consumed by the processor at the temperature to which it is cooled.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved IHS component cooling system.